The Paradise
Cast: Nani, Mohan Babu, Sonali Kulkarni, Raghav Juyal, Kayadu Lohar
Director: Srikanth Odela
Rating: ★
There are many who have a grouse with Srikanth Odela’s debut film, Dasara (2023), with Nani. I am not one of them. While that film also felt awfully familiar, thanks to his guru, Sukumar’s Rangasthalam (2018), there was honesty in the way the tale was told. The same cannot be said for their second outing, The Paradise. It is not just bogged down with a sense of déjà vu, but is shoddily made, making no attempt to stand apart from similar films that have been hitting screens lately. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The Paradise story
Shikanja Malik (Mohan Babu) rules over the fictional Paradise by exploiting the Savaari tribe. He has been looking down on them for years, but an incident changes the course of his rule. It has been 40 years since Independence, but the tribe is still struggling to gain legal recognition from the government. Sounds familiar? Sammakka (Sonali Kulkarni) is leading this fight for thousands who are throttled by Shikanja every day. Her son Jadal (Nani), however, is fighting a battle of his own against his mother and Shikanja. What leads Jadal to join Sammakka in her fight for dignity? Will he achieve what he set out to do? Though it’s no spoiler to say he does, because this is Telugu cinema. Every beat of this film is predictable
The Paradise review
The Paradise is a story told in chapters, which also sounds familiar. The story that begins with a birth and a death ends similarly. In between are people who dot the fictional place. There’s Shikanja’s annoying and spoiled son, Vikram (Raghav Juyal), who is busy cosplaying Fahadh Faasil from Aavesham (2024). There’s Subbu (Kayadu Lohar), who gets a story that serves only as a catalyst for the hero.
There’s even Sampoornesh Babu, Tanikella Bharani, Eshwari Rao, and a few others who get moments of brevity, but nothing lasting. To be fair to The Paradise, releasing after films with similar storylines, such as Kalki 2898 AD, Salaar, Retro, Kingdom, Devara, and Peddi, doesn’t help its cause. But that’s not to say Odela does anything to lend it any heft. It also doesn’t help that Anirudh Ravichander delivers what is probably his weakest background score. A shame after DC, which shone due to his work.
The done-and-dusted saviour trope
I think it’s time for Tollywood to retire the saviour trope. There are only so many ways to tell stories about downtrodden people who find a messiah. It is worth noting that most of these films haven’t exactly been met with love either. So what do filmmakers think can add to an already crowded space? When Odela and Nani made Dasara, irrespective of what people say, it was raw and gritty. It had a heart that was beating. It was surprising to see Nani pull off something like that with a fresh director. The Paradise seems like the duo trying too hard on twice the budget to make something that just doesn’t work. We don’t need to see another reluctant hero story for a long time.
When violence begins to bore you
Violence is like the spice that makes an action film taste good. You can do with enough to just season the dish, but filmmakers seem to forget that too much of it also makes it unsavoury. The Paradise starts off with the intent of showing what cruel violence can give birth to, but ends up indulging in it with no hesitation. Shikanja might be hacking and stabbing his way to power, and Jadal might be doing it out of anger that stems from humiliation and later desperation, but Odela doesn’t bother to differentiate between the two visually. This is a gripe I have with many films lately, whose violence begins to bore you. There are only so many times the audience will enjoy heads flying. After a point, it just feels like exploitation to see women being brutalised.
Sammakka’s legacy to The Paradise
When you watch The Paradise, it is clear that Odela wanted to pay homage to and tap into Sammakka’s legacy. The story of the 13th-century Koya tribal heroine from Telangana is one of bravery and grit. She is revered even today with the Sammakka Saralamma Jatara, where jaggery is offered in her honour. The Paradise uses the same name, the same jaggery, the same pain to tell another tale of a fight, but does the blasphemy of not enraging you in their plight. This film is bogged down by a legacy it fails to live up to. And that’s a shame, because Sammakka and the audience both deserve better than a film that makes you wonder if Toxic was better.